Miley Cyrus has refuted allegations of plagiarism against her hit single Flowers.
Cyrus, 30, has dismissed the copyright lawsuit initiated by Tempo Music Investments, a partial copyright holder for Bruno Mars’ 2013 track When I Was Your Man, per documents obtained by People Magazine.
The music investment platform partially owns the copyrights only because it acquired the catalog of the song’s co-writer Philip Lawrence.
It has no affiliation with the track’s other co-writers, Ari Levine and Andrew Wyatt.
In response, Cyrus’ attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that “only owners of exclusive rights may sue for copyright infringement” and “an assignee of only one co-author lacks exclusive rights and, therefore, also lacks standing to sue for infringement.”
Cyrus’ response comes after she was sued on September 16 over “striking similarities” between Flowers and When I Was Your Man.
The suit claimed her 2023 hit “duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements” of Mars’ song.
The complaint also claimed that “the opening vocal line from the chorus of Flowers begins and ends on the same chords as the opening vocal line in the verse of When I Was Your Man.”
In the suit, Tempo Music Investments requested the defendants listed stop reproducing, distributing, or publicly performing Flowers. They were also seeking an undetermined amount of damages.
